At height of popularity, creator pulls Flappy Bird from App Stores

Despite $50,000 in daily revenue, developer said he “cannot take” the attention.

Thus far, we have yet to write anything about the mobile gaming phenomenon that is Flappy Bird. That’s mostly because we haven't had much to say about it: as a game, the tap-to-fly-between-the-pipes gameplay is almost insultingly simple and uninteresting. The only curious things about the free-to-download game, really, were its sudden and meteoric rise to the top of the Android and iOS app charts in the last few weeks and what that popularity says about our collective taste in games. Ian Bogost covered this ground so well over at The Atlantic, though, that anything else on the subject would just be a waste of time and energy.

But Flappy Bird became a little more interesting this afternoon when the game was pulled down from the iOS and Android App Stores, apparently at the request of Vietnamese creator Dong Nguyen. The millions who have downloaded the game so far will still be able to play it, of course, but anyone who missed out on the phenomenon during the week or two of its unexpected success (or the few months previous, when it languished on app stores largely unloved) is out of luck.

What Nguyen “cannot take” isn’t the reported $50,000 in daily revenueFlappy Bird was bringing in, but rather the attention the game’s success has brought. “I can call Flappy Bird is [sic] a success of mine. But it also ruins my simple life. So now I hate it,” Nguyen tweeted yesterday. “Yes, the #1 makes a lot of visibility, more profits and also getting more haters :-(“ he tweeted earlier in the week.

Many of those haters have attacked Nguyen for making so much money from a game they see as simplistic and unoriginal. The game’s general design has heavy similarities to a number of largely unknown casual games from the past, though it’s important to note that it’s not identical to any of these likely inspirations. Kotaku was among many to note how the game’s art is extremely similar to Nintendo’s Mario games, though the art assets don’t seem to be ripped directly from any copyrighted works. Nguyen has denied any suggestion that there were any legal issues behind the game’s removal.

Others have suggested that the sudden success of Flappy Bird and other games by Nguyen was driven by fake reviews and bot-powered downloads, rather than any organic viral spread. And of course, being a prominent person on the Internet, Nguyen also attracted his fair share of death threats and other undue abuse from trolls both before and after the removal was announced.

Despite all this, Nguyen has kept up a busy conversation on his Twitter account with fans and haters alike, but says he has been “overloaded” with requests for formal interviews from the press, most of which he has turned down. “I am sorry press people. You are not my players!” he tweeted in explanation. Thus, Nguyen's tweets are the best window we have into his thoughts amid his game's meteoric and unexpected success. Those tweets show him expressing concern that people are “overusing” the game, suggesting that he is being “misjudged,” and explaining a lack of game updates by saying cryptically “a lot of things [are] happen[ing] to me right now.”

It all suggests a man who's ready to take a step back from a limelight he never sought or had any reason to expect. Still, in his last tweet as of this writing, Nguyen vowed that he will “still make games.”

While Flappy Bird may be gone, an army of overt clones has already developed to take its place, latching on to the original’s unlikely success like so many bottom-feeding leeches. The excellent I Want a Clone tumblr has been tracking some ofthe moreegregiousexamples of developers offering to buy and/or sell direct copies of the game to make a quick buck. Going by Nguyen’s example, those cloners may want to be careful what they wish for…

[Update (Feb. 10): Speaking of clones, since this story was first published, a game called Fly Birdie - Flappy Bird Flyer has skyrocketed to No. 2 on the worldwide iTunes free app charts. Another clone named Flappy Bee is currently ranked fifth on that chart.]

I'm the sole developer (in a 2-man team) of a barely successful Mac/PC game in a very small niche. It makes about $1k/month. Several times a month, I want to make it free so that I can tone down what users expect from me. If it wasn't a 2-man team, it would've happened before we even hit $500 in revenue. Whenever there's a bad review, it hurts. Whenever a user can't get it to work (whether due to their unfamiliarity with the equipment required or my mistakes), I feel it personally. If a multiplayer server goes down, even just for 15-30 minutes, it'll ruin my day. Next fall (the interest in the game is very seasonal), it'll likely be even more popular.

I can't imagine handling that at flappy-bird scale. He probably has hundreds or thousands of people telling him his game sucks and he sucks (most likely due to their own crappy phones or bad playing skills) every day.

To the guy saying: "well you shouldn't put it out there if you can't take it": Do you want the only people to develop software to be robots? How about this: don't be an asshole. The guy wrote some software that happened to be successful. He's still a human being. If it was at <500 installs, you'd probably treat him nicely (as people did when my game was small). Why should that change if it is at 10,000,000 installs?

tl,dr: The sheer number of user requests and (sometimes undeserved) bad reviews when developing software as a 1-man team makes me fully understand why a guy would pack up after banking 6 or more figures.

I've been an Ars reader for a decade but never felt compelled to comment until this story.

In the last two years I went from nothing to being a multi-millionaire because an app I created. Most of you have no idea the amount of bullshit successful app developers have to endure. My family and I get death threats on a weekly basis, and not from angry basement-dweller 16-year-old types. There are legitimate organized criminals and total psychopaths who hunt successful app developers because they're easy targets.

I've had people track down friends and family members on Facebook, then send me their private photos with threats of rape and murder.

Anyone calling this developer "weak" because he couldn't cope with that is a shitbag, and absolutely part of the problem with humanity. If you feel anything other than sympathy for this guy, go fuck yourself until dead.

Money isn't everything. In fact, it's nothing when your family is terrified and you can't leave the house because you're worried you'll be kidnapped for ransom or killed by a psycho.

That being said, I would happily bear the financial brunt and take one for the team.

This is a rather strange move. He had the guts and mental endurance to go through everything necessary to have the game make it to the app store. And more guts (yeah, pretty gutsy move I think) to remove it from the store.

I was subjected to the brutality that is Flappy Bird by my Wife last night. It is an excellent/evil game that robbed me of an hour I should have spent working. To add insult to injury, my Wife then proceeded to beat my hard won high score.

That being said, I would happily bear the financial brunt and take one for the team.

Yeah, I would have paid someone $1,000/week to take over my twitter account.

But whatever. He's probably got a few hundred thousand bucks in the bank, and he lives in Vietnam where that kind of money goes a *long* way. At this point he doesn't need the money.

PS: My understanding is the game's merit mostly came from being extremely difficult? I've never played it, but I've seen a lot of complaints by players who find the difficulty almost impossible... which must give a nice sense of achievement to those who managed to master it.

Thanks commenter #1 for providing us with such a concise example of why the poor guy probably doesn't want to deal with the internet public anymore.

It's a cruel world.

But really, think about it. EVERY highly successful thing out there attracts haters. If you aren't prepared to handle that, then you shouldn't enter the market. He should have realized this from the beginning (hency my unintelligent comment) and either had the courage to face it (be strong, not weak) or sell it to those who can (be intelligent).

Assholes like you ruin the internet.

Sorry, can't handle that? You should have the 'courage to face it'. To 'be strong, not weak.'

PS: My understanding is the game's merit mostly came from being extremely difficult? I've never played it, but I've seen a lot of complaints by players who find the difficulty almost impossible... which must give a nice sense of achievement to those who managed to master it.

I've seen a lot of people saying it took them hours to get to a high score of 5, or some such. I have played for less than 30 minutes and my high score is 31. Make of that what you will

Someone on Reddit suggested that perhaps, in his hometown in Vietnam, he's starting to get a lot of attention and suddenly, all the money he has fallen into has captured the attention of people around him, perhaps not for the better.

I'd believe it if this guy really wants out. Some of you, before running your mouths about intelligence and weakness, should read up on what happens to lottery winners a few months into their winnings. It's not pretty.

To me, it just sounds like this guy is weak and unintelligent and does not have what it takes to be an app publisher.

He should sell the game to someone who can handle the positives and negatives of having a successful app.

Edit-I'm sure this will be a controversial argument. But really ask yourself- is there any doubt that this guy could not handle this level of success?

Not sure how the developer's decision is a reflection of his intelligence, nor do I think anyone except the developer can make a judgement of whether his decision to pull the app was due to an inability to handle success. Maybe he was having some other issue in life getting in the way of being a full time developer...?

Anyway, in my opinion, all I can think of is how sad it is that such a simple app can be #1 in an app store. Pretty unbelievable! Though I suppose if there is high demand for funny little games, then funny little games will be #1!

You think someone you've never met is "unintelligent" and the only thing you know about him is that he made one of the most popular games in the whole world, with far more people playing the game than, say, call of duty.

It's entirely possible that the game's author is an idiot but you can't possibly know that, your comment was stupid for making such an unlikely assumption.

Because your comment reeks of condescending judgmental bullshit, and you have decided that you, someone who is getting all this information from nothing more than 140 char messages on the internet, have accounted for every single factor and decision in this guy's life, and that you are unequivocally correct in your assumptions he's too weak to "handle it".

That's why your comment was fucking stupid. It's not controversial, it's just you being an ass to someone who you have very little information about.

To me, it just sounds like this guy is weak and unintelligent and does not have what it takes to be an app publisher.

Claiming that it's necessary to have a thick skin in order to develop an app (successful or otherwise) is one of the more ridiculous arguments I've seen on the front page.

I don't think that it's ridiculous at all. Almost anything that can be reviewed online is going to receive a negative review at some point. Often times quite unfounded. And from the sound of this article, it sounds like the criticism of his app was pretty unfounded.

I think it's silly to not think you'll have to deal with that at some point.

And there you are again, oversimplifying it. In your head, you've decided the only reason he got out was because "he couldn't handle negative reviews". That viewpoint is simple-minded.

PS: My understanding is the game's merit mostly came from being extremely difficult? I've never played it, but I've seen a lot of complaints by players who find the difficulty almost impossible... which must give a nice sense of achievement to those who managed to master it.

I've seen a lot of people saying it took them hours to get to a high score of 5, or some such. I have played for less than 30 minutes and my high score is 31. Make of that what you will

I don't understand it, he made a popular if extremely derivative and exploitative game, so how could he not be in it for the money? Any other of these derivative titles could have been artificially inflated by buzzfud and their creators would have gladly accepted the extreme wealth that resulted. If he was in it to make an enjoyable game or something unique, noteworthy, worth playing... the resultant product certainly doesn't show it.

Maybe he was in it because he wanted to be proud he published an app in the app store. That's quite an achievement. Just because it might be somewhat derivative doesn't mean didn't enjoy making it.

PS: My understanding is the game's merit mostly came from being extremely difficult? I've never played it, but I've seen a lot of complaints by players who find the difficulty almost impossible... which must give a nice sense of achievement to those who managed to master it.

I've seen a lot of people saying it took them hours to get to a high score of 5, or some such. I have played for less than 30 minutes and my high score is 31. Make of that what you will

Yeah but you're a gaming journalist, hardly the intended market for the game.

I imagine I'd probably do fairly well at the game also and get bored quickly (too bad it's not available... I really want to try it now). I expect a game to still be difficult after playing it every day for three months.

But other people have lower difficulty thresholds, I introduced my mum to minecraft a couple weeks ago and she struggles with really basic stuff like just moving around (she's never played a wsad/mouse game before). She regularly rage quits the game for stupid reasons like getting stuck in a hole she dug by accident... but she keeps coming back and absolutely loves the game.

Hitting the right difficulty is the hardest part of designing a game, and this guy clearly nailed it for the casual gaming market.

Someone on Reddit suggested that perhaps, in his hometown in Vietnam, he's starting to get a lot of attention and suddenly, all the money he has fallen into has captured the attention of people around him, perhaps not for the better.

I'd believe it if this guy really wants out. Some of you, before running your mouths about intelligence and weakness, should read up on what happens to lottery winners a few months into their winnings. It's not pretty.

Look at the people who play the lottery.

Know what I'd do if I won the lottery? Buy a decent house and put the rest into savings accounts/CD's etc. Probably talk with my bank about the best way to invest it. Certainly not tell tons of people.

First, what do people look like who play the lottery?

Second, there are certain public appearance contractual obligations that come to those who win.

No what I'd do if I won the lottery? Buy a decent house and put the rest into savings accounts/CD's etc. Probably talk with my bank about the best way to invest it. Certainly not tell tons of people.

You have too much trust in banks... I wouldn't trust them a large sum of money. I'd invest it myself, either buying shares in companies I trust or building a small business of my own.

That's certainly a valid thing to do with your winnings.

But banks, at least where I'm from, have a reputation for being dependable and fiercely protecting their customer's money.

Sure, they protect their customer's money on average, but they're also prepared to take cut-throat risks on an individual basis and you're more likely to fall to that if you are an outlier... and anyone who wins a lottery is certainly an outlier.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.